Brown’s proposed twin tunnels project designed to carry water to Southern California and related plans to restore the vital San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta are both multibillion dollar undertakings with uncertain futures.

While ratepayers will have to cover the proposed $14 billion tunnels, the general public will be asked as part of a statewide bond measure to pay for the delta’s environmental improvements and other water supply projects dotted across California. The combined price tag is estimated at nearly $25 billion.

Pressure is mounting to strike a deal, particularly if the coming winter is a repeat of the last two seasons.

The 2012-13 snowpack registered at 17 percent of normal. That came on the heels of the 2011-12 snowpack of just 40 percent of average. As a result, the state limited deliveries to contractors to just 35 percent of their requests. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also cut back.

It could have been much worse, however, The state’s salvation was its vast reserves tucked in brimming reservoirs thanks to heavy storms in 2010-11 that delivered 144 percent of normal snowfall.

But that banked water is quickly running dry. The Shasta reservoir is at 68 percent of average for this time of year; Oroville, 73 percent; Folsom, 65 percent; and San Luis, 51 percent.

The outlook is just as bleak over at Lakes Mead and Powell fed by the Colorado River, which has been in a dry cycle for most of the last 14 years. Current systemwide storage there is just half of normal. The San Diego regon is more reliant on the Colorado than on state supplies.

Still, it’s too early to suggest rationing, water officials say.

“We’re going to closely monitor the supply conditions and look at use trends,” said Dana Friehauf, a water resources specialist for the authority.

But even if the coming winter is a snow-maker, the state will face many of the same nagging questions, from protecting fish to restoring the delta to finding ways to store water during wet years.

That’s where the bond financing comes in.

Quinn is convinced voters will go for an $8.2 billion bond, including $3 billion for storage. That’s the size of the measure his association has proposed.

“The notion of taking water when it’s really wet and storing it for when it’s really dry resonates with voters,” Quinn said.

But polls suggest voters are not sold.

A Los Angeles Times survey released this week found that 60 percent of voters back a bond measure to fix some of the most pressing problems. But support dropped to just 36 percent when told even the slimmest of bonds could cost $6 billion. Moreover, slightly more that a third of voters said they support a new delivery network to Southern California when told taxpayers and ratepayers would have to come up with $25 billion to pay the bills.

A Public Policy Institute of California poll found that just 43 percent of likely voters favor building new reservoirs and just 44 percent support using state bonds to pay for water or other infrastructure projects.